By George Gene Gustines, New York Times :
August 15, 2012
: Updated: August 15, 2012 12:39pm

Roberto Gari plays Guy Blank on "Strangers With Candy." Gari is among the quiet, recurring TV characters that fans watch out for.

Photo By CHRIS HASTON

Michael Schur plays Mose, the cousin of Dwight Schrute in "The Office." Schur is among the quiet, recurring TV characters that fans watch out for.

Photo By Adam Rose

Brad Ellis (left) is seen but seldom-heard on Fox's "Glee."

Sure, playing a rogue teacher or a rogue soldier or a rogue politician is a challenge, and the Emmy nominations last month recognized that. But those actors at least get lines of dialogue to flesh out their characters. What about the regular ensemble players who go years without a line? Award shows may not notice, but here are a few for your consideration.

Brad the piano player, "Glee"

There are a lot of mysteries on "Glee," like how does the band in the choir room already know how to play a song that Rachel is suddenly inspired to sing? Just how many sectional and regional competitions are there? And how does the piano accompanist, played by Brad Ellis, know to materialize whenever someone is ready to croon? But one mystery we can clear up: Though he hasn't had a line since, he sang, just a little, in the pilot episode.

"Fans believe I've never spoken, and I let them believe that," Ellis said.

For a man of few on-screen words, he certainly has his fans. Annie Barrett, on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog, wrote: "I feel like 'Mattress' was Nameless Glee Pianist's breakout episode. Never mind that he does not speak. All he needs to do is smile."

Ellis enjoys his pseudo-anonymity, but he does get recognized. "There was a girl who was so star-struck. She said, 'You're my favorite character.' I said, 'I'm you're favorite character? Do you watch the show?' " (At least she knew he was from "Glee." Ellis said he is sometimes confused with actor Dave Foley or Mike Gordon, the bass player for Phish.) "I think I have the right amount of sub-lebrity that I can take."

"Friends": Gunther the barista

On the "Friends" page on imdb.com, the six leads are credited with appearing in 238 episodes each. James Michael Tyler, who played the barista Gunther at Central Perk, was in 144, including the very first. "At the time I was also working as a barista for a place called the Bourgeois Pig, one of the last independent coffeehouses in Los Angeles," Tyler said. He ended up on the "Friends" set, with his cappuccino machine, as "Coffee Guy," his character's name for more than a year. His next break came during the second season. His first line of dialogue: "Yeah," in response to Ross, who asked Gunther if his apartment had stairs.

Tyler kept his job as a barista for the first four years of "Friends," and customers would often do a double take when they spotted him. His trademark bleached locks came about as a lark. "A friend of mine bleached my hair before the first episode of 'Friends' and buzz-cut it," he said. If there was any downside to being a part of the "Friends" phenomenon, "it was maybe bleaching my hair once a week for 10 years," Tyler said. "Hopefully that hasn't done any permanent damage - except for the lack of hair now."

"The Office": Mose Schrute

In a work environment as dysfunctional as the one in "The Office," it's difficult to find the biggest oddball. But Mose, the cousin of Dwight Schrute, seems to fit the bill. The character, played by Michael Schur, who created "Parks and Recreation" with Greg Daniels, has appeared in fewer than 10 episodes (this includes an appearance in a photograph). Mose occasionally speaks, sometimes lurks and is always strange.

In Season 8, Mose served as the overly eager parking attendant during a garden party at the Schrute family farm. He did get several lines, though most of them were the same: "I'm the valet," he repeated robotically. "You have to give me your car."

"Strangers With Candy" starred Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, a "boozer, user and loser" who returns to Flatpoint High School, at 46, to get her life on track. The show was inspired by after-school specials, and Sedaris said she and her colleagues were struck by the shows' typically non-existent father figures.

"We decided to heighten that," she said, and they came up with Jerri's father, Guy Blank. "We made him paralyzed and frozen." And that's exactly what viewers saw. Blank would be in static poses no matter the situation: a visit to the principal's office, a family dinner or a one-sided heart-to-heart talk with his daughter. Many actors auditioned, but Roberto Gari won. "He could sit perfectly still," Sedaris said.

The show ran for three seasons on Comedy Central, ending in 2000, but Guy Blank was not around for all of it. "We felt we had to change it, so we killed him off," Sedaris said. "He was fine with it." Blank was eaten by the feral mascots of Flatpoint's rivals, the Mount Valley Rabid Dogs, in "The Goodbye Guy" episode, leaving Jerri to run the Father-Student Sack Race with an urn of his ashes. Gari died in 2008.

"The Simpsons": Wendell and Lewis

With the whole town of Springfield at their disposal, the creators of "The Simpsons" have developed a deep supporting cast. In Season 7 (way back in 1996). the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" shined a spotlight on many of the residents, including Apu, who runs the Kwik-E-Mart; the Spanish television star Bumblebee Man; and Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel. In Season 8, "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" imagined new series for Principal Skinner, Chief Wiggum, Moe the Bartender and Grandpa.

Wendell and Lewis, two of Bart's classmates, still are waiting for their close-ups. The two speak so rarely that different actors have voiced them. This could explain why even Bart has trouble telling them apart, as happened in "Das Bus," from Season 9, when the children of Springfield Elementary were stranded on a desert island: